Haha look at this. Here I am, posting this after what. . . three years? I don't even know. I got a boyfriend (now he's my fiancee) and I started college and I just. . . forgot all about this. ALL ABOUT IT. But here I am, feeling like a terrible person. I don't even know if anyone will still read this or what but I don't know. XD I feel terrible and you all can come get me with pitch forks.

I thought about just putting this down as abandoned, but like, nah. I have it all already. . . I literally have one chapter after this and then the alternate ending and it's finished. I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting, but here we are. The final installments. I will be shotgunning the ending at you all this weekend. The alternate ending is going to read differently because my style has changed so much since I first started this, but hopefully it's changed for the better.

Anyway. Hope this was worth the wait. If not, I totes understand.

Please forgive me. uwu

It hadn't taken much to find the ice he needed, and as soon as he had it in his clutched, Robert retreated into his lab and covered the Infected woman with the ice, watching her vitals decrease as the ice lowered her fever. Then, he injected her with the serum he had used on that rat.

"Hello?" Anna called.

Robert started and turned to look at her. "Woah. You startled me."

Anna smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I called down. . . twice. I brought you some tea."

"Mm, thanks," Robert murmured, taking the cup she held out to him and taking a sip. He headed for his desk and checked some things on his computer, setting down the cup.

Meanwhile, Anna meandered toward the glass, looking at the restrained infected, her eyes wide with awe.

Glancing at her for a second, Robert returned to what he was looking at for a second. "Don't worry. It's heavily sedated."

"I've seen one so still before. . . usually they're all. . . biting."

Anna examined the IV Robert had hooked up to the woman and tilted her head slightly before pulling back. "Do you think this will cure her?"

"Well, this will most certainly kill it," Robert amended, adding a little extra emphasis on the "it" as he punched in some more numbers. "Its body burns too hot for the serum, so I hope the ice will help it get through its system easier."

Anna barely acknowledged this comment, transfixed on the pictures taped to the wall of pale-faced and skeletal faces. They looked like people who were on the verge of becoming completely infected, as the still had some color in their eyes. Anna moved closer to the wall, lifting a hand as if to touch one of them, but she let it drop to her side.

"Did they all die?" she asked, sounding horrified.

Robert looked up from what he was doing. "Yes." He looked back down to tinker.

"My god. . . ."

Confused, Robert looked up at Anna and tilted his head. "God didn't do this, Anna. We did."

Anna ignored him, then crossed her arms. "Where can Ethan sleep?"

Robert carried the sleeping form of Ethan up the stairs and into his daughter's room. Pulling the stuffed animals off the bed and the covers back, he let him curl up there and tucked him in while Anna examined the picture of little Marley.

"She's beautiful. What's her name?"

Robert looked up at her, his eyes glistening with sorrow. "Marley. Her name was Marley."

Together, the two of them hurried downstairs, the alarm on Robert's wrist watch going off. He hung up his lab coat, then went about his nightly ritual of closing the metal shutters and locking down the house.

"Come with us, Neville. To the survivors' colony."

Robert latched the last window closed, then looked over at her, shaking his head. "There is no survivors' colony," he insisted for the millionth time.

"There is!"

"How do you know?"

Anna paused, her lips pursed, and then she smiled. "I just know."

"But how do you know? How could you?" he repeated, more forcefully.

Looking down, Anna paused again before looking up at him defiantly, but with a smile lighting her face. "God told me."

Robert gave her the most dubious look he could muster.

"I know how this sounds—"

"It sounds crazy," Robert interjected.

Anna continued without missing a beat. "But the world is quieter now. We just have to listen. If we listen, we can hear god's plan."

Robert fought not to roll his eyes. "God's plan? Alright, let me tell you your 'God's plan.' There were six billion people on earth when the virus hit. KV had a ninety-percent kill rate. That's five point four billion people dead. Crashed and bled out. Dead!" He clapped his hands and Anna flinched. "Less than one percent immunity. That left twelve million healthy people like you, me, and Ethan. The other five hundred and eighty-eight million turned into your 'Dark Seekers' and then they got hungry and they killed and fed on everybody. Everybody! Every single person that you or I has ever known is dead. Dead! There is no God."

Anna looked to the be on the verge of tears, her lip quivering as she tried to keep a straight face as she met Robert's cynical glare. She refused to believe it, but his math was sound. . . .

A loud noise was heard outside, catching both of their attentions. Robert twisted his head slightly to get a better idea of what the sound was. Alexis had gone out. . . . But she never made this kind of noise. Then, the screeches sounded. Different from any other night. His eyes widened and he turned to Anna.

"Was it still dark out when you brought us home last night?" he demanded.

Anna paused for a second, knowing where this was headed. "There was light on the horizon, and you were bleeding."

As if that justified it.

Angered, Robert lifted a hand and pointed at her accusingly, then decided against it and went to the front window, pulling back a small strip for observing and peered out into the darkness.

What was that massive shadow, heading toward his building. . . ?

Several infected passed under the working streetlights Robert had rigged and he gasped internally.

Turning halfway toward Anna, he announced "They followed us home."

She turned swiftly and hurried for the stairs. "Ethan!"

Moving away from the window, Robert grabbed a switchboard on a side table and flicked a few switches to on. Outside, massive UV lights flashed on and several of the Infected screeched with pain and collapsed, but it didn't take long for several of them to climb up on the lights and take them to the ground, allowing the others to pass.

Where was Alexis? He hoped she wasn't in this fray, because things were going to get real big.

Letting out a groan of frustration, Robert grabbed another switchboard and leaped to the other side of the couch, crouched down low as he waited for a few moments, and then, simultaneously switching several of the levers at once.

Then the explosions started.

They took out many of the Infected as the cars lining Robert's street exploded due to the small trigger bombs Neville had loaded into them in line. Bodies flew and metal soared through the air. It made the entire house feel like it jumped, and then the ringing in Robert's ears started, blood trickling slightly from the volume of the explosions.

Rubbing his ear, Robert staggered to his feet, looking around. His balance was shot slightly from the inner damage, but he slowly started to recover. Where was Alexis? Was she alright?

"Anna?" he called, looking toward the stairs. No answer. Staggering slightly, he wandered up the stairs, looking around for any sign of damage or of his new companions, as well his old one. They weren't on the upper levels, but one of the metal shutters on the window was bent outward, blood dripping from the jagged edge.

As if someone had just shoved their way through and cut themselves.

Brow furrowed and senses alert, Robert turned and was promptly taken by the screech of an infected and he felt to the ground, wrestling with the Alpha of the horde.

Outside, a thin-haired woman was having as much luck as Robert.

Her face was bloodied—not only with her own blood, but with the blood of the crazed Infected—and she was riding a bad limp.

She still managed to stay on her feet and throw the Infected around, but they had learned, now. Most of them were just ignoring her until they attacked, as if her effects meant nothing any more. That Alpha. . . . He had told them not to fear her, that she was just any other piece of meat.

They were no longer afraid.

Alexis battled to get to the house. Robert was in there, as was that horrible woman who had caused this. She could hear the Infected talking. They had followed the woman to Robert's place because she hadn't heeded the rules. Or common sense. . . .

Now Alexis had something to hate even more than the Infected.

Three years of Robert's life spent keeping the Infected away from his home. Three years of lying traps and bombs and gathering the materials to turn his home into Fort Nox. . . . All of it was wasted by one night. One night had been all it took for one woman to ruin everything.

Shots were coming from inside the house and for some reason, the Infected had fallen back. They were no longer advancing, as if waiting for some cue. Alexis took the opportunity to run to the house, but she stopped at the sound of an explosion.

Her eyes went wide. "Robert!" she shouted frantically, forsaking the door to scramble up the side of the building where she had seen pieces of wood flying. Someone was up there.

Halfway up, she heard gun shots and stopped, nearly losing her footing in surprise. However, she composed herself and climbed up the rest of the way, shouting "Robert!" as loud as she could.

"I'm okay!" came the reply she had been waiting for.

Sighing with relief, Alexis climbed to the roof and dropped through the whole, causing Ethan and Anna to jump.

Alexis glanced Robert over—he was wounded, and those were definitely bite marks around his shoulder. Concern flashed across her face and she moved toward him, but she caught sight of Anna first and her rage returned.

"You!" she shouted, moving toward the woman with all the deliberation to strike her. Robert was in her way, holding her back no matter how hard she tried to get past him, and she was incredibly strong for how thin and sickly she looked.

"You bitch! You did this! You killed us all! Don't you have any sense you moronic little twit!" she screeched, her voice lower than normal, sounding almost feral as she lashed at the woman. "I hope you know that Robert was the only hope mankind had! And now look what you've done you whore!"

Robert focused all his strength and shoved Alexis backward. She stumbled slightly, but kept her balance and regained herself in time to keep herself from lunging at the girl again.

"This won't help Alexis!" he berated her.

"Robert, she—!"

The sound of a bellow outside silenced everyone. Anna was on the verge of breaking out into sobs prior to the noise: she knew her mistake, and Alexis words had cut her deeper than a knife. But those thoughts were dispelled at the malignant sound, and Robert threw open another observation hole and peered outside.

Alexis didn't need to see what was happening.

"You have to hide, Robert. You have go! Take the kid with you, but I say leave the idiot out here to get what she deserves!" Alexis shouted angrily, brandishing an accusatory finger at Anna.

Robert gave her a reproachful look and Alexis turned away sourly.

"Get to the lab," he dictated.

Alexis turned back to him, looking angry and defiant. "You know what they want don't you, Robert? Don't you!"

Robert didn't understand. Of course he knew. They were running out of food. The three of them were prime meals. But Alexis should know that, too. If that wasn't what she meant. . . then what could she. . . ?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the bellow again. "Get to the lab! Hurry!" he declared, shoving Alexis and Ethan out the door. He turned to Alexis, who was standing by the hole in the ceiling, staring up at it. "Alexis, come on!"

Alexis snorted and turned toward her head toward him. "I'll stall them. Get down there!"

Robert didn't need to be told twice when she snarled like that. He turned heel and glided down the stairs, following Ana and Ethan into the lab, where they planned to lock themselves up behind the Plexiglas doors of the isolation chamber.

Anna was the first one in. . . and the first one to notice the state of the Infected woman in the room.

"Oh my god," she muttered quietly, leaning over the body.

Robert walked in and set some things on the table.

"Robert, Robert! It's working!" Anna announced.

Curious, Robert turned toward the table and noted the no-longer pale infected. Color had returned to her skin, and the veins were gone, her face returning to normal and not looking so sunken and sickly. . . . His eyes widened and he checked her vitals.

"Robert. . . it's working," Anna repeated.

There was no time for celebrating. The door was bust open and a flood of Infected rolled inside like great waves. Robert hurried to the glass doors and locked them shut just before two of the Infected slammed into the glass, making him jump backwards.

Where was Alexis?

The answer came several seconds ago when a familiar screech reached the lab. Alexis was thrown down the stairs and slammed into a table, the metal structure bending under the force and her weight. Alexis cried out painfully and stayed there, sitting and trying to recover.

"Alexis!" Robert called loudly. Alexis' head twitched slightly as she tried to look at him, but she just slumped.

But the Infected were leaving her alone now.

"Stop! Stop! I can fix this! I can fix all of you!" Robert shouted through the glass as more and more Infected tried to slam through the glass.

From the stairway, the Infected that had roared at him before and then attacked him not but ten minute ago came down the stairs, angry as all hell. She shoved his hordemates away and into walls, sickening crunches following a skull being slammed into the wall.

Robert stopped, then lifted his hands where the Infected could see him, one hand full with a hand gun. "Please stop! I can fix you! Stop!"

Alexis stirred and her head fell to the side as she looked toward the cage that separated Anna, Ethan, and Robert from the crazed infected. Slowly, she turned to her stomach and crawled toward the glass pane, leaning against the wall next to it. The Infected no longer paid attention to her and merely stood in the back and watched their Alpha beat against the glass. He didn't pay attention to her either, and Robert just stared in shock as the glass started to crack under the pressure of his body and the strength. How could they be so strong?

"Robert. . . they won't stop. . . they don't want to be fixed. . . . They don't know what it means. . . to be fixed," Alexis muttered as loudly as her battered body would allow, hitting her palm against the glass. "Give them. . . give them what they want."

Her eyes closed and she leaned against the glass, her head against it and her breathing heavier than it normally was from the exertion.

Robert glanced at Alexis, concern and guilt flashing. How had it come to this? Everything he had been working for was being destroyed. Maybe Alexis was right. Maybe it would have been better if they hadn't found these two survivors. . . . At least not under the circumstances.

The Alpha slammed against the glass again, making Robert jump. Alexis was right. They weren't going to stop.